Communist land grab haunts Warsaw’s mayor

WARSAW — The mayor of Warsaw is halting the return of properties confiscated under Communist rule after a corruption scandal over the restitution process that has undermined her position.

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz is one of the most powerful members of Civic Platform, the former governing party defeated by the right-wing Law and Justice in presidential and parliamentary elections last year.

She has been badly damaged by a question that has haunted Poland since 1989: how to deal with the thousands of properties and businesses expropriated or stolen over 45 years of Communist rule.

An investigation by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper looked at 50 property restitutions — a process known as “re-privatization” — carried out by one lawyer. It alleges that the lawyer had ties to a city hall official in charge of returning confiscated land, and that many of the returns may have been illegal.

Allegations of impropriety include one property worth around €37 million being incorrectly returned in 2012; the original owner, a Dane, had already received compensation years earlier.

That decision was “hasty,” Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a press conference. She fired three officials, shut down the government office in charge of returning confiscated property and will set up a commission to look into all restitutions dating back to 1990, including the return of a building to her husband’s family.

‘Mass attack’

Her political enemies are closing in for the kill. Gronkiewicz-Waltz is a tempting target; after last year’s elections, Law and Justice purged people seen as Civic Platform supporters from the government bureaucracy, state media and government-controlled companies, which leaves Warsaw’s mayor as one of the most prominent opposition politicians.

Law and Justice MPs suggest Prime Minister Beata Szydło may step in and exercise her right to appoint a commissar to run Warsaw instead of the mayor, whose term expires in 2018.

“We can’t allow for the capital of the country to be ruled by people who potentially could be involved in corruption,” Paweł Lisiecki, a Law and Justice MP, told Polish media.

The liberal opposition Modern party is also on the attack. Its support is flagging in polls as Civic Platform tries to regain its footing after last year’s bruising defeats. Civic Platform’s problems could help Modern claim the mantel of leading opposition party.

Grzegorz Schetyna, the leader of Civic Platform, is offering a full-throated defense of the embattled mayor, calling the idea of appointing a commissar “absurd.”

He told Poland’s TOK FM radio: “We’re absolutely going to defend and support Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz,” adding that she was the victim of a “mass political, party and media attack.”

The danger to Civic Platform is acute. If Gronkiewicz-Waltz is ousted in Warsaw, a city that usually strongly backs Civic Platform, it could undercut any attempt to rebuild the party’s popularity ahead of local government elections in 2018 and parliamentary ones in 2019.

An issue that just won’t die

The legacy of the expropriations has troubled Polish governments since the end of Communist rule in 1989. Other Central European countries faced similar issues; some returned properties, others repaid at least a percentage of the value to the previous owners. But Poland has done nothing.

The reasons are related to Poland’s turbulent wartime history. Before 1939, about 10 percent of the population was Jewish. Almost all were killed by the Germans, and their houses and businesses were taken over by Poles. That’s left very little political will for property restitution, despite years of pressure from Jewish lobby groups.

Other unpopular groups such as ethnic Germans and aristocrats also owned property before the war, and there has been little appetite to dig into the public purse to pay them or their heirs. One restitution bill was vetoed in 2001. The previous Civic Platform government promised to pay out compensation, but backtracked after the 2008 economic crisis.

Jarosław Kaczyński, the Law and Justice leader, is an opponent of the idea, saying last year: “That would mean that the heirs of poor Poles have to pay the heirs of the rich. Please excuse me, but that’s impossible. No one in Poland would agree to that.”

Ruined capital

The situation in Warsaw is especially complicated. The capital was almost completely destroyed during the war, and in 1945 the new Communist government expropriated almost all private property in the center of the city. The idea was to help speed up the reconstruction, but many owners weren’t compensated.

After 1989, that created fertile ground for a lucrative restitution business. Many claims were legitimate, but there has been growing concern about dubious cases.

In some cases, lawyers zeroed in on properties once owned by Jews, and would get courts to appoint them as representatives of the impossible-to-find owners, with the goal of taking over the property themselves.

In other cases, legitimate owners found it impossible to make headway through Warsaw’s bureaucracy, and would sell their rights to well-connected middle-men for a small percentage of the value. They, in turn, would use their contacts to take over the land and buildings.

Once the buildings were handed over, the new owners would often evict the tenants, who were paying tiny government-sanctioned rents, spruce up the buildings and then sell them.

The danger for all governments is if the issue isn’t dealt with by parliament but is left up to the courts and bureaucrats, it leaves enormous scope for confusion and corruption.

That’s created growing calls for reform from all political parties.

President Andrzej Duda this summer approved a law forbidding the return of confiscated properties being used for the likes of government offices, schools or hospitals.

Now there’s a push to finally clear up the matter — helped by Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s troubles. The mayor said the city will only start returning properties once the country has passed legislation regulating how the process is supposed to work.

“We’ve been dealing with re-privatization for a long time,” she said. “I’ve been asking that this burden be lifted from us for a long time. However, there hasn’t been a re-privatization law for 25 years.”

jb

Will Verhofstadt, Timmermans, Schulz come again for rescue of their corrupt friends ?
I hope next time they will have a chance to meet them in prison. Nice setting for a press conference by the way.

Posted on 8/26/16 | 11:30 PM CET

POOLISHH GUYYY

Hihihihi…
Look who is talking..Cienski:-))
Guy who tried use the same stunt few years ago in Warsaw…What a hypocrite

Posted on 8/27/16 | 2:35 AM CET

wi

Warsaw’s mayor case shows the extension of the corruption within the Civic Platform (former government) and its members.

Posted on 8/27/16 | 9:36 AM CET

Wojciech

Quote “Almost all were killed by the Germans, and their houses and businesses were taken over by Poles”. This guy Cienski lying like all from Gzaeta Wyborcza, Jewish newspaper for Poles. He doesn’t explain how it is possible to write and were is a logic: their houses were taken by Poles and in the same time Gronkiewicz Waltz, Warsaw president from PO reprivatises the same houses. The Warsaw was completely destroyed by 2WW so the houses were built a new or sometime rebuilt by Poles . But Poles were not owners of these houses. It was state that owned not Poles. And it was communist state the Jews supported eagerly at the beginning. The head of nationalization was a Jew Hillary Minc and his button to prevent nobody oppose was Jakub Berman another Jew. So the first sentence is full of lies in Gross type propaganda for western ignorant readers. I can say that Jews on the west are not ignorant but deliberately diffuse lies

Posted on 8/28/16 | 8:01 PM CET

Wojciech

In my previous comment I put an article “a” before a noun “logic”. It was made deliberately, because “ a” logic is an accountable noun: one for common people and one for Jews

Posted on 8/28/16 | 8:12 PM CET

akul

As usual Mr. Cienski has clouded the issue with the remarks about 2WW, Jews, Communist…
The property was stolen by organized crime with the help of corrupted government officials, corrupted civic officials, corrupted judges and corrupted policemen.
This, as we all know, is a recipe for MAFIA